The Butterfly Effect
Category Design Tips
Butterflies flitting around a summer garden are always a delight for those who enjoy gardening. Some have called butterflies "flowers on wings" because of the beautiful colours they display as they dart around the garden.
To attract buuterflies into a garden one needs to plant indigenous shrubs and trees as most butterflies are specific to host plants and will only lay eggs on the selected plants they have evolved alongside.
The host plants are not only incubators for the eggs, but also nurseries for the caterpillars, so if you see them nibbling on your favourite plant dont freak out and rush over with sprays.
Leaves will return after the larval phase and the butterflies will be beautiful.
Patience and trust in nature is necessary, especially for beginners in indigenous gardening. If you are patient, it pays to tolerate some insect damage to your plants rather than to use insecticides. In addition to being more hardy in varying weather conditions, indigenous plants have evolved their own defence mechanisms against local species of insects and so do not need gardeners to use chemicals to kill everything that crawls.
Why are Butterflies Important
It is also very important for us to protect and promote butterflies in our gardens as many South African butterflies are on the endangered list because they have disappeared along with the eradication of indigenous flora overs the years. Hopefully, with the increased popularity of indigenous gardening more gardeners will attract butterflies to their gardens thereby contributing to conservation. Butterflies are important because they play a role in the pollination of flowers and are appreciated by insect eating birds and are of course a joy to behold. Once the caterpillars have turned into butterflies they need a different type of food, which is mainly nectar from plants.
In general butterflies are attracted by the colour range red through to purple and will feed on fermenting fruit such as bananas or finely chopped pineapple. They also enjoy a mineral intake from little pockets of mud that may be in the garden.
Author: North Glen news
